


Who The Hell Is Harrington?

by darkandstormyslash



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy does try, Childhood Trauma, Everyone is angry, Face Slapping, Gen, Neil Hargrove's A+ Parenting, References to Drugs, but does not actually succeed, misunderstandings and miscommunications, references to blowjobs, shouting, the briefest flicker of a mention of AIDS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23104234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkandstormyslash/pseuds/darkandstormyslash
Summary: What happened in the Hargrove household when Billy and Max got home at the end of season 2?Split-POV chapters for Max, Neil and Billy.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 23





	1. Max

Billy is still pretty much incapable of walking, so Max has to help him out of the passenger side of the Camaro, gritting her teeth at the sheer weight of him as she tries to get him upright. Together, they wobble up towards the front door of the house, Max hissing as fast as she can under her breath.

“Remember the story, okay? Nobody needs to know about Lucas, or Steve Harrington, or anything that happened tonight. All we’re going to tell them is that I stayed late at the arcade, and you got into a fight there when you want to pick me up, okay?

“Wheeler.” Billy slurs from next to her, leaning heavy and leaden against her arm. “I went to the Wheelers first, then the Byers, then the arcade.”

“Whatever. I don’t know. I was at the arcade, okay?”

She waits until she hears an answering ‘okay’ before using Billy’s house-key to open the door. Slowly, she pushes it open. If everyone’s asleep there’s still a chance that they might be able to sneak upstairs and get away with this. She can hear Billy’s heart pounding against her side. Despite everything, she can’t help but feel for him a little. Her step-brother might be violent, angry, and borderline-deranged, but she knows by now that anger comes from somewhere. It comes from Neil.

The light clicks on in the hallway, and she hears a small muttered, “Shit.” from Billy. Quickly, Max reaches behind her and shuts the door as Neil steps forward, blinking and rubbing his eyes, clearly having just woken up, “What kind of time do you call this?”

She’s hoping Billy will stick to the story, and he does but he also staggers forward aggressively, swaying slightly under the light, “She was at the arcade. Like I said. I’m going to bed.”

Neil’s eyes flicker over Max’s face, then turn to his son where they widen in horror. His jaw clenches and Max takes a step forward to grab Billy’s arm. “I’m sorry, Neil. I wanted to beat my high score. I stayed out way too late.”

She can tell Neil isn’t listening to her. This isn’t about her anymore, it’s about Neil and Billy both squaring up to each other and it’s only going to end badly. Neil’s voice is tight with anger. “Have you been drinking?”

“I’m tired.” Billy snaps back.

“Have you been taking drugs?”

“Fuck off.” Billy tries to shoulder past him and Max knows enough by now to jump out of the way as Neil grabs Billy by that shoulder and crashes him back into the wall. Billy makes an ugly sort of sound that isn’t quite a laugh and isn’t quite a sob.

“I told you…” Neil hisses into his face, “To find your sister. Not to go out drinking and smoking, and...”

She can see Billy’s lips moving, but luckily for him whatever he’s saying isn’t coming out. Neil’s hand raises and Max takes a step back, both of them pausing at a voice from the stairs.

“Max?”

Max realizes she’s been holding her breath and lets it out. “Mom. I’m so sorry, I stayed late at the arcade and…”

Her mother isn’t looking at her either, she’s staring at Billy in a mixture of disgust and alarm. “Oh my - is … is he okay?”

Billy has half slumped down the wall, held up mostly by Neil’s fist in his jacket. Slowly, Neil moves his hand to grasp Billy’s shoulder, dragging him back upright.

“He’s fine.” Neil says, voice suddenly authoritative instead of angry. “He’ll sleep it off, and we’ll … we’ll talk about it tomorrow. Maxine, get to sleep.”

“Where were you?” Susan asks, and for the first time that night Max suddenly feels guilty. Her mother looks genuinely worried. It’s far later than she’s ever been out before, and between the demodogs and the mind flayer it never occurred to her to even think about what her mother might be feeling.

“She was at the arcade.” Billy mumbles, as Neil drags him bodily up the stairs. “I got into a fight. At the arcade.”

Max bites her lip as she watches them go.

“You really should have called Max, I was worried sick.” Susan steps forward, and Max forces herself to look contrite. “I think, I mean I know it's Billy’s fault for not watching you, but really, running away like that? Out the window? I thought…”

Max knows what she thought. “I’m really sorry mom. It wasn’t Billy’s fault.” She can give him that at least. 

There are raised voices from upstairs, Max watches her mother’s eyes flicker towards the ceiling and tries not to react as she hears Harrington's name. Why is Billy talking about Steve? Didn’t they agree not to talk about Steve? 

Susan frowns and glances at her, “Who is Harrington? Max, what’s been going on?”

She feels a sudden wave of trapped helplessness, the feeling that’s been thudding inside her ever since the wedding, ever since they moved to Hawkins. She knows Billy gets the worst end of the deal with his father, but half the time he seems to invite it and besides, Billy can be legally gone in a year. She’s stuck here. “I-I don’t know mom. I told you, I was just at the arcade.”

“I think you should be grounded for the next two weeks.” Her mother says, and the tight-lipped way she tries to sound tough would be funny if it weren’t so tragic. “I don’t want you doing this again. And I’m taking your skateboard for that time too. Until, until you learn to behave.”

There’s a bang and a thump from the bedroom upstairs. Max really hopes it was Billy falling over trying to get into bed. Susan gives a weak little smile that doesn’t meet her eyes. “I think it’s hard for Neil, with two men in the house alone, I mean...”

Max doesn’t dignify that with an answer. She pushes past her mother and goes upstairs to finally get some sleep.


	2. Neil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just what does Neil think his son's been up to?

Neil tells Susan to go to sleep eventually, because there’s no reason for her to stay up getting worried. As the clock slides past midnight he’s glad he did, because it’s far too late for her daughter to be lost somewhere in Hawkins. Even in California, where she knew the place backwards, he wouldn’t have trusted her out on her own. Hawkins is not California.

He told Billy to watch out for her. The boy should be old enough to learn responsibility. When Neil was Billy’s age he had a job to support himself, he certainly wasn’t bumming around drinking, driving, and getting up to no good. They moved out of California to get away from all that. From what he’s seen so far, Billy doesn’t seem to be trying very hard to move on.

Neil clenches his jaw. If they aren’t back soon…

He must have drifted off on the sofa, because it’s dark when he hears a noise that jumps him back into wakefulness. It's the sound of the door opening and Neil pushes himself upwards, flicking on the hall light. He blinks as his eyes adjust, trying to take in the scene and prepare exactly who he needs to read the riot act to and in what order, “What kind of time do you call this?”

And then,  _ then _ , he actually takes in what he’s seeing. Max looks fine, thankfully uninjured if a little pale, but Billy is a wreck. He’s staggering, drenched in sweat, with blood drying on his face. This does not look like a dutiful son who went straight out to get his sister, this looks like a wasted little punk who went out to do drugs, get into fights and … god knows what else.

Neil feels his blood run cold. 

They both start blabbing excuses, but Neil doesn’t listen to them. Billy’s mouth has told him plenty of lies over the years, but Billy’s body is telling a different story all together. His shirt is ripped, his speech is slurred, and Neil isn’t sure, but there’s something that could easily be the pinprick mark of a needle on his neck. His son is taking drugs. His  _ son _ … at a time when his own little sister was out lost in the dark.

“Have you been drinking?” He snaps out, “Taking drugs?” Billy ignores him and tries to shoulder past, and Neil grabs him in a streak of white hot anger at being ignored, slamming him back against the wall. “I told you to find your sister. Not to go out drinking and smoking and…” he can’t even finish it. There’s plenty else he’s worried his son has been up to, but nothing that he can say in front of Max.

Neil raises his hand without thinking. He can see the desperate curl of Billy’s lip, the sneer ready to jump out of him, and that drives him madder than ever. He’s about to slap it down when he hears Susan’s voice from the stairs. Slowly, he lowers his hand, still staring into Billy’s eyes. They look … unfocused. Red-rimmed. No doubt about it, the boy is on something. They will have words about that, oh yes they certainly will, but not here, not on the stairs with Susan and Maxine watching.

Grabbing Billy firmly by the arm, he starts to move him upstairs, reassuring the ladies as he does so. It’s Billy’s fault for letting her run off, but even so he hopes Susan does have a word with Maxine about it. It’s not really acceptable behavior for her to be staying out so late without even trying to call. Billy’s still mumbling as Neil gets him upstairs, throwing the boy into his bedroom and striding to the curtains to pull them shut.

That’s when he sees the Camaro.

“Billy. What did you do to your car?”

“The car?” Billy frowns, and Neil feels his temper rising again. As if Billy doesn't know. He watches the boy as he pulls himself upright, staggers over to the window and, to Neil’s surprise, leans against his father as he opens the curtain to look. Neil can’t help but put an arm around his shoulders, just to keep him upright. Maybe if they were a normal family, maybe if Billy would just goddam  _ behave _ himself for once in his life, they would do this more often. A fatherly hand on the shoulder, a ruffle of Billy’s hair. Instead of which he’s repeatedly trying to knock some sense into his son, because Billy has apparently been born without it.

“What the fuck did Harrington do to my car!” Billy screeches at the window.

Just like that, any fatherly feeling is gone. Neil’s hand grips hard at Billy’s shoulder. Now the story is changing, now he’s getting some of the truth, “Who the hell is Harrington?”

He can almost see the wheels turning in Billy’s head as the boy tries to make up a suitable excuse. “He’s … nobody. A kid from school.”

“Why was he in your car?”

“We just got into a fight…” Billy’s shoulder rolls experimentally under his grip but Neil isn’t about to let go. 

“Did he sell you the drugs? What else did he do?”

“He’s just a kid from school.” Billy repeats desperately, but Neil isn’t about to take any of that. He has Billy pinned against the wall in an instant, a hand cracking down across his face. “Who is Harrington?”

“N-nobody, he just…”

“WHO. IS. HARRINGTON?” Each word comes with a slap, because if this is the only way he can get the boy to stop fucking  _ lying _ to him, then this will have to be it. He can see Billy’s eyes tearing up, and can’t help but hate him even more for his weakness. His son might spend half his life weight-lifting, but it’s all purely cosmetic. Billy isn’t interested in being strong, just in attracting women, and it damn well better be just the women. If Billy were as tough as he pretends to be, maybe Neil would forgive him a little more.

Maybe not.

“He was at the arcade!” Billy chokes out, “We got in a fight, he must have keyed my car when I … ah shit.”

Neil doesn’t believe Billy for an instant, but the swearing is caused by Billy’s legs collapsing out from under him. Neil lets him fall, standing back and breathing hard. He’s clearly getting no sense out of Billy tonight, and while he doesn’t want to give the kid the time to think up more bullshit excuses, he also can’t  _ keep _ hitting him. There’s already a hot red blotch marking his cheek that looks like it might swell. Billy has school tomorrow, he’ll need to look at least halfway presentable for that.

“Get up.” He snaps, giving an angry growl as he realizes Billy can’t. His legs still aren’t working properly. Reaching down he offers a hand, hauling Billy upright and staggering him over to the bed. “This isn’t over, alright son? We’ll talk about it again tomorrow morning. Susan can take Max to school.”

There’s a slightly surly, “Yes Sir.” from the bed.

Nothing he can do about it now. With a sigh, Neil leaves the room, pulling the door shut behind him, and heads to his room to get some sleep. 


	3. Billy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And finally Billy. Oh Billy.

Billy has no fucking clue what’s going on. The last time the world made sense was when he smashed a plate over Steve Harrington’s stupid pretty face, and ever since then things have been slowly going to shit. His head feels dizzy and fuzzy, bits of the world keep fading in and out of focus. There’s a throb in his head from Harrington’s fists and a phantom ache in his balls from that damn bat. The minute he gets a second to himself he needs to get down to the clinic and check he hasn’t picked up gay-disease from Byers’s used needles.

Fuck but he feels sick.

He leans on Max as they stagger towards the house, resting on her a little harder than he strictly needs to. He can’t take his anger out on her anymore, that’s clear enough, but it doesn’t mean he has to coddle her. The small piece of his mind that isn’t floating through a thick fog is needling him with little questions that won’t go away. What the hell were they all doing at the Byers house? Why did they come back smelling of gasoline? He swears he remembers seeing Hopper there, were the police involved?

Max gently opens the door and for a moment Billy dares to think they might have got away with it. They can crawl upstairs unnoticed and at least he’ll be able to face his dad with a clear head and a reasonable excuse. Then the light flicks on and he knows they’re fucked. He’s fucked. 

The worst thing is, he hasn’t even done anything wrong. There are plenty of times when he has, when he’s rolled in drunk or high or excessively late smelling of perfume. Tonight though, he’s been  _ good _ . He went out to find Max, he did find Max, he fought to  _ protect _ Max, and all it’s done is land him in a whole pile of trouble.

The moment Neil sees him, he’s on him. Billy yells back at the man, pushes at him, gives it back as good as he can. He still ends up shoved against the wall, with Neil clearly not believing a word of Max’s bullshit excuse. He sees Neil’s hand raise and braces himself for it. It’s not the pain, he can take a hit, hell Harrington’s fist was easier to deal with and that was a lot harder. With Neil, it’s the way it makes him feel; the nausea, the weakness, the whole rolling wave of self-hate that rises up from childhood to drag him down.

“Max?” Susan calls from the stairs. Out of the corner of his eye, Billy watches Neil’s hand lower.

It isn’t a respite, just a delay. Neil drags him up the stairs and flings him into the room, while he tries doggedly to give Max’s story one last chance. It at least gives Billy a bit of time as Neil strides over to close the curtains, time to take a breath and try to plant his feet. His legs are wobbling like jelly. This is going to be a fucking one-sided mess.

“What did you do to your car?” Neil snaps from the window.

Billy feels his blood run cold. The car.  _ His _ car. Surely, Harrington wouldn’t have, surely he isn’t that petty. He staggers to the window, leaning heavily on Neil to stare out, and his jaw drops at what he sees.

She hasn’t been destroyed, thank god, but she isn’t pretty.

“What the fuck did Harrington do to my car!” he screeches at the window. He’s so full of rage and misery at the state of her that it takes a good few moments before he even realizes what a colossal mistake he’s made. 

Shouldn’t have mentioned Harrington.

He can  _ feel _ his father’s body tensing, feels the anger inside him rising. He’s got no time to backtrack before Neil is right in his face, loud and inescapable. Billy twists desperately as the familiar pain blossoms over the side of his cheek, as Neil’s voice rages. He tries to raise his arms to protect himself but none of his limbs appear to be working anymore.

“WHO”  _ slap  _ “IS”  _ slap _ “HARRINGTON?”  _ slap _ and with the final hit Billy feels his knees start to give way. What the fuck did Byers even have in that needle, horse tranquilizer?

He chokes out excuses, none of them good enough. Billy can’t find a way to explain why he fought Steve Harrington tonight, because he doesn’t  _ know _ why he fought Steve Harrington. Steve was there, for no apparent goddam reason, there to kidnap his sister, steal his car, fuck it up, and return smelling of gasoline. And now Neil thinks he spent the evening doing drugs and quite possibly sucking cock. Billy would quite happily leave the house right now, wobbling legs and all, and  _ kill _ Steve Harrington, except he can still feel the impact of the bat with nails as it landed with a hefty thud between his legs. He’s not sure if Max’s protection extends to Steve, but he’s not willing to risk it.

His legs give way and he slides down to the floor in an inelegant heap. He sees Neil’s face above him, and a hand reaches down to help him up. 

“Get up.” Neil mutters at him, staggering a little as he hauls up the dead weight of his son. Billy manages to make it to the bed, falling over gratefully into the pillows. He knows this isn’t over. The side of his face is throbbing, Neil won’t usually leave bruises but either the threat of drugs has made him angrier than usual, or he figures Billy looks battered enough from the fight and won’t show a few more slaps. 

“Yes Sir.” He mumbles into the sheets, relieved as all hell when finally,  _ finally _ , Neil leaves the room and he can sink down in his torn and bloodied clothes and get some sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This does slot into Chapter 4 of Double Denim, because all my fics tend to happen in the same universe in my head :p.
> 
> I love doing these split POV stories. In case anyone was wondering, yes I do edit check all three chapters next to each other which means that any discrepancies in what's happening (e.g. Billy reporting that he pushes his father when neither Max nor Neil mention it) is caused by unreliable narration and not me forgetting what I wrote aha.


End file.
